Tells Govt: Don’t mistake peaceful nature of Nigerians for weakness
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the just announced hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol to N151.56 from its recent price of N138.62 per litre. The main opposition party also rejected the new astronomic hike in the price of electricity tariff of up to 100%, calling both prices crazy.
Revealing this in a statement today, the PDP spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, described the action as “callous, cruel and punishing,” urging the government to reverse the prices in order to avert a national crisis.
Ologbondiyan said: “The increase will result in upsurge on costs of goods and services and worsen the biting hardship being faced by Nigerians, who are already impoverished and overburdened by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-imposed high cost of living in the last five years,” stressing that, “by the action, the ruling party had proven to everyone that its agenda was to inflict pain and hardship on Nigerians to “satisfy their selfish interests.”
The PDP spokesman further stressed: “The unjustifiable increase in the price of these essential supplies, coming barely a week after the APC brazenly posted a support for fuel price hike, while attempting to rationalise the excruciating hardship being suffered by Nigerians under the Buhari administration, has further confirmed that the APC is at the centre of the harsh policies of the Buhari Presidency.
“It is distressing that the APC administration increased the cost of essential commodities at the time the leadership of other countries are offering palliatives to their citizens to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is instructive to add that our nation is doomed under the APC watch.
“We know that the APC is an unfeeling party but it is indeed shocking that it could go to the extent of approving such a hike at this trying time, when many Nigerians are struggling to afford staple foods and other necessities of life,” urging the Buhari administration to publish, without delay, the parameters with which it arrived at the increase to N151.56 per liter “given that with the prevailing values in the international market, the appropriate price template for domestic pump price in Nigeria ought not to be above N100 per litre.”
He emphasized: “Moreover, the APC and its government have failed to allow an open investigation into allegations of fuel price overcharge as well as the fraudulent subsidy regime through which over N14 trillion had allegedly been frittered by unscrupulous individuals in the APC.
“Our fear is that the APC is pushing Nigerians to the wall with its obnoxious and anti-people proclivities and we caution that nobody should misinterpret the peaceful and law-abiding nature of Nigerians as a sign of weakness,” saying, “Our party, therefore, restates our call on the National Assembly to save the nation by calling the APC and its administration to order before they plunge our nation into chaos.”
- Pix: President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria
